Nebraska Mom Gets 2 Years in Prison After Buying Abortion Pills for Her Teen Daughter

At the time, Nebraska banned abortions after 20 weeks post-fertilization (or 22 weeks after the last menstrual period), which meant abortion care after that point was unavailable to Celeste in clinics or hospitals. Even though that law applies to licensed abortion providers, not people self-managing their own terminations, Jessica Burgess was still charged.

Emma Roth, staff attorney with Pregnancy Justice, told Jezebel in July after Celeste was sentenced to jail time for concealing or abandoning a dead body that it’s clear prosecutors will “stretch laws far beyond their intended scope” in order to charge people. “They’re desperate to file some kind of charge to ensure that they criminalize what they view as immoral behavior,” she said. (Celeste, who was charged as an adult, pled guilty to a felony charge in exchange for getting two other charges dropped. She was sentenced in July to 90 days in jail and two years’ probation, and was released last Monday after serving 53 days.)

Some people reading about the case are getting hung up on the timeline and debating abortion later in pregnancy, instead of focusing on the broader issue of criminalizing abortion and stillbirth. Roth and Kidvai say the state is more than happy to let them.

“It is not illegal to self-manage an abortion in the vast majority of states, irrespective of gestational age,” Roth said. “This [prosecution tactic] is speaking to the court of public opinion rather than the court of law.” The prosecutors in this case “tried to paint a portrait of this mother and daughter in a negative light and to deprive them of their humanity and to erase the fact that we’re talking about a teenager who was not ready to have a child.”

Kidvai noted that “none of this is about justice or safety or someone’s health or society being better or kinder or safer—this is about control from the state,” they said. “Everything is a distraction, including conversations around gestational age.” Kidvai added, “They’re distracting you constantly by telling you that your individual choices are the problem, not the systems that keep you oppressed.”

Elizabeth Ling, senior helpline counsel at If/When/How, said in a statement that charges like those made against Burgess and Celeste aren’t new but they are scary. “We should all be outraged that prosecutors in Nebraska chose to misuse the law and criminalize a mother who was simply supporting her daughter. No one should have to fear punishment for helping a loved one make the best decision for themselves, including when they decide to self-manage their abortion.”

Ling said the case will “deepen the climate of fear and confusion” following the end of Roe, which the group is already seeing every day via people who call the Repro Legal Helpline.

This isn’t the first time a state has criminalized a mom for helping her own child end a pregnancy outside the medical system. In 2012, Pennsylvania mother Jennifer Whalen helped her teen daughter get abortion pills because clinic care was inaccessible to them. Whalen’s daughter was scared when she started bleeding, so they went to the ER and told staff she’d taken the pills. She was discharged without incident but the hospital system reported Whalen to state child-protective services; in 2014 the state sentenced Whalen to 9 to 18 months in jail.

Republican politicians and conservative lawyers have signaled that they will continue to target people who help others get abortions, whether they seek that care in other states or outside the medical system.

People who need assistance self-managing a miscarriage or abortion can call the Miscarriage + Abortion Hotline at (833) 246-2632 for confidential medical support, or the Repro Legal Helpline at (844) 868-2812 for confidential legal information and advice.